Checking The Crops

When I was a kid, my dad used to drive around and check the crops. I would ride in the back seat for miles, looking out the window at acre after acre of whatever happened to be planted. To this day, I'm not sure what I was looking for.

I did notice that the rows were pretty straight, but I don't think that was Dad's main priority. And I do know that as I got older, the fascination wore off. In fact, I would dread those days when we would be driving home from somewhere else, and Dad would say, "Let's just take a drive and check the sugar beets (or insert crop here)." Ugh. Which ones? There were so many fields of sugar beets that my eyes would start to cross.

What I would give to have one more day riding in the back seat of that Pontiac, Mom in the passenger seat, and Dad driving about 10 miles an hour on the shoulder of the road, checking the crops. I promise you, I wouldn't huff and roll my eyes if I had just one more day.